Gilles Magnus leads Audi 1-2 in WTCR qualifying at Aragón

Gilles Magnus claimed his first WTCR pole position in two years at MotorLand Aragón, also breaking the lap record in his Comtoyou Racing Audi RS 3 LMS. The Belgian led his team-mate Nathanaël Berthon, with last year’s champion Yann Ehrlacher just behind them in his Lynk & Co 03.

In the first part of qualifying, Santiago Urrutia led the way, while the battle to make it into Q2 was fought between the Honda cars and the two Audi cars of Tom Coronel and Mehdi Bennani. Both Bennani and Coronel missed the cut, as did three of the Hondas, with Pau Race 1 winner Néstor Girolami qualified in 13th, after he made a mistake on his final run.

It was then Rob Huff’s turn to lead the way in Q2, setting a time of 2:05.783 to head the time sheets in his Zengő Motorsport CUPRA Leon Competición, and became the first driver to drop underneath Norbert Michelisz’s 2020 lap record.

Michelisz himself looked set to improve alongside his team-mate and points leader Mikel Azcona in Q2, but the two BRC Racing Team Elantra cars then lost time in the final sector and dropped out of the top five, eventually qualifying ninth and eighth respectively, with Michelisz therefore securing a front row slot for the partially reversed grid second race alongside the pole sitter Ma Qing Hua.

In the top five shootout of Q3, Huff went out on track first and set a good benchmark despite a slide in the first sector, but it was the two Audi cars of Berthon and Magnus who proved to have the ultimate pace. Berthon first snatched provisional pole from Huff by a tenth of a second, before Magnus went two tenths quicker to secure his first pole of the year. Ehrlacher set a capable lap to move to third fastest, while team-mate Yvan Muller had to settle for fifth, setting a lap with a damaged splitter after hitting the tyre stack at the exit of Turn 1.

Mikel Azcona continues to lead the championship in his Hyundai on 85 points, ten points clear of Girolami, with Urrutia 16 points back.

Race 1 is scheduled to get underway at 11:15 CEST on Sunday morning.

Aragón – Qualifying 
2:05.548 Gilles Magnus (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS II)
2:05.680 Nathanaël Berthon (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS II)
2:05.808 Yann Ehrlacher (Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03)

Championship points
1. M. Azcona 85 pts; 2. N. Girolami 75; 3. S. Urrutia 69

Picture: FIA WTCR/DPPI